My name is Alistair Park and I'm a professional carver who is based in Bristol, England. I've been carving for over twenty-two years and I also enjoy teaching my skills to people of all ages.
You'll find posts here about all kinds of things to do with carving; the work that I do, the people that I meet and the things that I see which inspire me.
Please feel free to comment on anything of interest, it'd be great to hear from you!

As well as this blog, I also have a website with lots more images of my work as well as a few more stories.

If you like woodcarvings, you'll want to have a look.

Friday, 24 February 2012

I'm still working on the figurehead, just waiting for a few last vital measurements before starting carving. Last week the timbers were cut and planed smooth so that they can be glued into a block to be carved.

Well, it's been a while but I've just made another metainsect for the series that I've been working on for the last few years. These sculptures are all inspired by the US defence department's 'HI-MEMS' project, which seeks to implant electronic and mechanical devices into insects so that they can be used for military purposes.
I'm imagining that eventually, instead of implanting complete devices, tiny 'nanofactories' would be put into the insects. These could produce the devices from within the creature and would also be able to self-replicate into succeeding generations, meaning that the insects could be released and then left to reproduce themselves with their synthetic systems being passed on as well.
With the possibility of reproduction comes the chance for variation and evolution, both of the insect and the synthetic system. So what would the evolved descendants of these creatures look like and what other creatures would prey on them?

The 'wood miner' is like a super-woodworm, which has a tri-cone mining drill bit as mouthparts, so can chew through almost anything. A woodcarver's nightmare!

This image shows all the individually carved pieces that make up the sculpture